“Then we’re agreed,” Conah said. “Never together outside of the Underealm.”
Azazel nodded.
“I kind of feel sorry for them,” Cora said. “They don’t belong here, and they’re trying to go home.” She locked gazes with me. “What if we’re wrong, though … What if they’re just trying to survive?”
The thought brought silence to the room again. We had no way of knowing. Even if Uri did know about the Dread, how much of what he knew would be accurate? He was a lower-tier celestial. Still, we needed to find out.
I tapped a message to Uri on my comm.
Meet me at Lumiers tomorrow at seven pm Necro time.
Cora stood and held her hand out to me. “Come on, babe, you need to get some sleep.”
I took her hand and allowed her to haul me up before pulling her into another hug. “Thank you for saving our asses out there.” I pulled back and looked into her cornflower-blue eyes. “I’m so fucking glad you came with us.”
“No doubt,” Mal said. “We’d be fucked without you.”
She swallowed, then fixed a smile on her face. “I guess you’ll just have to keep me around then, won’t you?”
“Forever.” I linked arms with her. “For always.”
Cyril
Fee and Cora are safe, and it warms my cold little reptilian heart. The churning in my gut calms as I watch them leave the lounge arm in arm, but I linger. I can taste the apprehension. It’s coming from the big male. Azazel is his name. But it’s more than apprehension. I flick my tongue out and taste fear.
I’m intrigued. What has the monolith got to fear?
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Mal says.
Conah pinches the bridge of his nose. I slide closer to the vent grill to see better. Expressions are just as important as tone, or so I’ve come to realize of late. The vents have yielded many secrets, and not all of them are to be shared.
“I have to,” Azazel says. “Now, more than ever. The protection will save her from the Loup and from Lilith. Then we can worry about the Dread without looking over our shoulders constantly.”
“Let me pay the price,” Mal says. “Hell, I’ll enjoy it. Pain is my bitch.”
Azazel grimaces. “I’m not afraid of pain.”
There’s silence.
“How long has it been?” Mal asks.
“None of your fucking business,” Azazel snaps.
“Why you?” Conah asks. “Do you have history with the witch?”
“I believe she likes the way I look.”
“She wants his cock, brother,” Mal says, but he sounds almost angry. “So now we whore him out for her.”
“Cut the bullshit,” Azazel said. “You’d do the same for her.”
“And I hate myself for it.”
“Annabeth is a bitch.” Conah’s tone is saturated with venom. “There must be someone else we can use to create the enchantment?”
“There was, but rumor has it Annabeth killed her,” Azazel says wearily.
“Rue Mort is a shitty place,” Mal says. “And the bloodwitch is a bitch.”
“It’s one night out of each month. One night to keep the amulet charged.” Azazel stands tall. “To keep Fee hidden.”
“The things you do for Lilith …” There is a sly edge to Mal’s tone.
“Not for Lilith …” Azazel says so softly I almost don’t catch it. “For Fee.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
I woke up to sun streaming across my room and Cyril’s narrow reptilian face way too close to mine.
“Tha fuck …” My speech was slurred with sleep. “Backthafuckup.”
“Fee,” he said. “I think sssomething bad is about to happen to Azazel.”
I was instantly wide awake. “Spy mode?”
He slid over my torso and rose up to look down at me. “He’s gone to get your protection amulet.”
“Okay …” I rubbed my eyes. “He said he had someone making it.”
“But he has to pay a price.” Cyril’s head loomed closer. “A nasty one from the sssoundss of it.”
My scalp prickled.
“He’ss seeing a bloodwitch.”
Bloodwitch … Wait, did he mean an independent witch? They used blood and sex to power their enchantments … blood, sex, and pain. The thought of Azazel being bled, of some bitch hurting him, made my blood freeze with horror.
He was willing to do that for me. He was willing to be hurt to protect me … Yes, he was cursed by Eve to keep me alive, but my gut told me this wasn’t about the curse.
Things had changed between us. I touched the mark on my chest. Things had changed even if Azazel didn’t realize it. I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Azazel was important to me, maybe because he was my soulmate, but mostly because I